Just a Mask
by Luafua
Summary: When tragedy strikes to the one you cared about most, how do you cope? Is it good to move on, or does it forever be a burden to your heart? What complications would arise? Would you ever open up and allow others to see? Sometimes the greatest of friendships and bonds begin with a scowl, a squeal or a smile. Shika/OC Lee/OC and Kiba/OC
1. Prologue

**A/n: Okay Dokey, here is the Naruto fanfiction that I had promised some time ago. I separated this story into two parts, one in pre-shippuden and the other, obviously in shippuden. Anyways, I'm kinda sleepy considering that its nearly ten thirty and I've had a busy day dealing with 'Happy Birthday' posts on my facebook. **

**Warning: This does contain swearing and but it should never be too bad. May contain OOC**

**Disclaimer: As well as you, I don't own Naruto. Naruto is owned by the one known as Kishimoto, if I had been in his shoes... maybe the story would be better *Okay I'm just being cocky here* and events from 614 would never happen. Yep. I'm still upset from that, I hope you're happy. And Tenten would get some love!**

**Prologue**

"_My story starts in the past, back in the war times, before Orochimaru had defected the village. When I was a heartless enemy to the village… to you... Back then, I didn't have a name like everyone els,e but acknowledged by everyone from the infamous name of '__**Red River'**__. Only Orochimaru and a few chosen others had known my true name…"_

She heard the heart beat rapidly through her own chest. It had thumped wildly, as if any moment it would rip out of his chest. Her sharp emerald orbs narrowed as she heard the unique rhythm, and pulled out her kunai, a deep scarlet already dripped from the blade that came from her previous kill. The target stopped running and observed his own surroundings, long blonde hair had whipped in the wind down to his shoulders, with bright blue eyes watching the scene around them. All as if he had known that he was about to be ambushed. Her messy scarlet hair tied up in the high ponytail moved with the wind.

_For Orochimaru-sama_…She growled softly, tightening her hold on the steeled kunai. Without this life, this girl had nothing to live for, and if she were to die then she would die serving him. She pushed her sandaled feet from the tree branch to silently get over the kill. As she approached the figure, prepared to paralyse him, the redheaded girl failed to notice that he had been watching the reflection of his kunai. He had blocked the attack with the kunai, forcing the redhead to use most of her weight to power her attacks.

Her eyes widened horridly as the male figure's frown appeared once his eyes lay on the girl's. It was annoying that he was giving her a pitiful stare, "You look no older than fifteen, Red River. From the rumours of your silent kills, I thought you were a bit older," He stated plainly, his bright azure orbs flickered to her black singlet and grey undershirt. It was the proper uniform to declare that she was a hunter – an assassin. "Are these shinobi really taking innocent children to turn them into killing machines?!"

"Shut up! You are to die by my blade, Hoshitsuki!" This man was triple her age, according to the files that she was given when she was assigned by Kabuto to kill the man in front of her. She gritted her teeth together, and used her strength to edge the blade closer to her target. He narrowed his eyes, using the advantage of his strength to push her off him, making her hiss with irritation.

This wasn't a usual hunt for the girl. The man in front of her was the current Head of his clan, and he had suspected Orochimaru to have conducting harsh experiments. Since Orochimaru was considered to still be an inheritor of the 'Will of Fire', he could not let anyone foil with his plans… that is when she comes in. She mostly hunts for her service to Orochimaru , but there were a few cases where she would be fighting an exceptionally strong opponent, and offer her some large payment for the hunts. It was definitely an offer that she couldn't refuse or fail.

"You do not deserve this life…" He muttered softly, his blue eyes darkened with grief, "But you have lost this fight, Red River." What the redheaded girl did not expect was half a dozen kunai pointed towards her throat in that instant. Her snarl only expanded as she met eyes with the masks surrounding her. She had been too careless, now she would have to find a way to escape, which was very difficult but not impossible.

"You will be coming with us Red River. Don't resist."

There was no point in fighting. She will escape one way or another. After all, the Hoshitsuki man had a bounty on his head. If anything, she will definitely spill his blood by the next new moon. The Red River raised her eyes to meet the masks of the ANBU and complied with their wishes.

_They had taken me back, interrogated me with brutal force… but I had been trained to put up with all sorts of torture. Eventually, they turned to a Yamanaka for scanning my brain for information, only by then… I had already found my escape._

"Search everywhere!" They ordered around, the ANBU were flashing throughout Konoha to find the redheaded assassin. "Someone go protect the Hoshitsuki!"

…

Her bare feet barely made a sound as she stepped on the wooden floorboards of the Hoshitsuki compound. Emerald orbs flashing menacingly to the rooms, not finding a trace of her target. That's when she heard a war cry from the outside, making her pause mid-step to follow the noise.

_If it is the Hoshitsuki I am meant to kill…_ Her thoughts trailed off, she pulled out her kunai and let the moonlight glimmer over the blade as she advanced towards the courtyard. She gazed at her hands like she always did and imagined the scarlet liquid sprayed all over her fingers. It had always remained on her hands after many years of assassinating the ones that suspected him.

She slid open the door, letting the night air fan her face. Her brow furrowed deeply as she did see the figure, but realised that it wasn't the one she was looking for. The figure turned around, his long blonde hair – like her target – was blowing with the wind in golden ripples, his eyes a dark shade of blue and strapped in blue robes. He faced her, before getting himself into a fighting stance.

"Red River… I will not allow you to harm my Otou-sama." His brow furrowed deeply with concern, and the redhead could detect… pity… in his azure coloured eyes. It only took an extra moment for her until everything had clicked into place for her.

This boy, the same age as her was the next Head – it could be possible to use this boy as ransom, but her emerald orbs saw that this boy wasn't a weakling. She scowled furiously, and got herself into her own stance, just as the duo had leaped at each other, one had a scowl while the other had a smirk they knew that they had to prepare for the worst.

_At that time, my thoughts were completely hazy… I never expected to meet the challenge for the next fourteen years of my life. Then again, I never expected to have you… and to have a dream._

**A/n: Before I sign out, I just want to experiment with the whole Okaa-san, Otou-san thing... The only reason why I'm doing this is because my OCs actually do mention their parents and since I write Mum instead of Mom it feels really weird to write it out. Ah well, if you don't like it then tough... I think it suits well for this story. As for side pairings, I will definitely add my OTP... I've already got in mind of how to do that. ****  
**

**22/07/2013 - Happy Birthday me!**


	2. Chapter 1: Glare of Friendship

**A/n: Thanks for the favourites and follows :D I guess no reviews aren't the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the Naruto World is Chapter 614 and 617. Seriously Kishimoto, stop taking your sweet time and kick Sasuke's butt head already so you can revive you-know-who... heh heh... okay not exactly a fan of Sasuke... Though I like his voice actor, the only reason I had continued watching Naruto, until Shikamaru and Choji came in the picture****(When I found out Choji's voice actor was Ito-sama, I cried in happiness and ate chips when I watched his scenes) ****... and Neji and Lee came in... and you guys get my point, I'll just continue on with the story.  
**

**Warning: This does contain swearing and but it should never be too bad. May contain OOC**

**Disclaimer: As well as you, I don't own Naruto. Naruto is owned by the one known as Kishimoto, if I had been in his shoes... maybe the story would be better *Okay I'm just being cocky here, I can't draw for - pardon my English - shit* and events from 614 would never happen. Yep. I'm still upset from that, I hope you're happy. And Tenten would get some love! The cover image is my own however.**

**Chapter 1: The Glare of Friendship**

"Aburame Shino?"

"Yes."

Shiver.

"Haruno Sakura?"

"Here sensei!"

Yawn.

"Hyuga Hinata?"

"Uh h-here!"

…

"Sakamoto Mari?"

The children of the classroom reverted their gaze towards the front row; an empty chair indicated that she hadn't even come. Some start to snicker at the slackness; others merely looked the other way with a cold stare. Umino Iruka-sensei closed his eyes and let his jaw grit in irritation, a vein throbbed thickly between his brows.

"Does anyone know where she is?" He questioned, voice shook with annoyance.

"Um…" One of the quieter students mumbled under her breath, shaking in embarrassment when all eyes were fixated on her. She let her framed strands of black hair cover her face, trying to hide the reddened cheeks. Oh how embarrassing, "I heard… Mari-san went to go train." Her little voice was barely audible, how Iruka-sensei managed to get the message amazed her.

"Alright. I'll be back, and when I return – make sure you've completed you homework." Iruka then calmly walked out the door, leaving the academy students alone to chatter.

"Hey Shikamaru…" One of the chubbier students looked towards his ponytailed friend. "Do you know the answers?"

"I know them… but it was too troublesome to deal with." The pineapple head boy responded with a yawn. "At least Mari gave me time for a nap…" He leaned on the desk and fell asleep instantly, leaving the chubby boy to go back to eating his chips with a faint smirk towards his friend.

"Hey Naruto! I'm quite surprised that you're not doing any of those stupid pranks. Right, Akamaru?" Inuzuka Kiba spoke up, grinning widely when the small white puppy on his head yapped in agreement. While the blonde haired student merely snorted in response and turned the other way, Kiba turned to the shy girl beside him, the one that had told about the missing student's whereabouts. "Hey Shizu… how did you know where Mari is?"

The girl with a black pineapple shaped head looked towards him with large chestnut eyes, almost looking away when she felt the pressure of the canine lover come on top of her. Looking away, her finger tugged the bottom of her white singlet that was tucked over her mini black shorts. "I saw her this morning, out in that old spot training again on my way here." She managed to speak out.

"Ah…" Kiba nodded before leaning on the desk, closing his eyes with a wide smirk. "Just wake me up before Iruka-sensei comes back… okay Shizu?"

Shizu blinked silently but mumbled an agreement, before looking over to the raven haired boy sitting a row in front of her, staring out of the window to ignore the swooning girls around him. She giggled quietly at the sight of the boy. Not even she could resist his charms from his good looks and distant personality, Uchiha Sasuke was smart, and quiet… like her however Sasuke was the prodigy of her generation. It was too bad that she was too shy; she couldn't even pick up the courage of talking to him. With another saddened sigh, Shizu began doodling on her books; taking her thoughts off the raven Uchiha.

-:-

Elsewhere, a single figure let out a cry of outrage as she kicked down an imaginary opponent. Her blazing red hair spilled just past her head; the edges of her round face were framed by her messy strands of hair. Sharp emerald orbs hardened as she bent her knees into a crouch, using the strength of her hands to hold her weight as she spun on the spot to attack another opponent.

She then jumped onto her feet, sending a punch behind her only before it was caught by Iruka. At first the redhead eyes widened in shock, before they narrowed into a scowl. Her lips curled back into a vicious snarl as she glared at the older man.

"Mari." Iruka muttered in a warning tone, just as Mari jerked away her fist and glared at him. "You're late. Everyone else is at the academy."

The girl scoffed in response, before turning away from him. "Who cares? Missing one lesson isn't going to kill me." She would've been surprised of how ironic it sounded to Iruka's ears.

"Look Mari, when you enrolled into this academy – we expected you to come every day. Imagine if missing that one lesson can cost your life."

"I was training anyways!" Mari snapped, her brow furrowed as her snarl widened, stretching out her arms to reveal the black undershirt and the grey zipped up vest tightly strapped to her body, with her knee length trousers the same colour of her vest. Iruka mentally winced at the sudden memories he received as he watched the girl bubble up in fury. This had not been the first time that the girl had snapped at people, but Iruka had to make sure that the students were okay for when she did snap. "Why do you think I'm bothering the village whenever I'm not in the academy?!"

Once again, Iruka felt his brow furrow into a responding glare. "Look Mari, it has nothing to do with what your actions are – you are my student and I want you in my class right now!" She remained glaring back at him; Iruka could almost see a storm raging in the young redhead's eyes before she let out a scoff. He knew that Mari hated the village; she hated the people that lived in the village.

"I can't stand that stupid class, why would you care so much about me?" She whispered, storming past Iruka to head to her class, leaving Iruka speechless. He didn't know what to say to the redhead, but his eyes took a faint glimpse towards the dent on the tree with bark and moss slowly overgrowing.

"You really struggle with the loss of her, don't you Mari?" The ponytail sensei mumbled gently, it was either she ignored the question or she didn't hear it, Iruka assumed the latter. He tried to smile warmly to comfort the angry redhead but found himself sighing and following after her into the room.

-:-

Iruka was back to standing in front of the room, now with Mari sitting on the chair and sending the sensei death glares. "Now that Mari has returned from her little training season we are going to see how our target practice skills are going." Most of the girls had responded in a chorus of disappointed groans while the boys merely scoffed and let out their widest smirks.

That's when the group stood outside, safely away from harm. Mari spun the shuriken loosely with her index finger, making the group of boys and girls cringe back. She didn't enjoy target practice whatsoever; she had terrible myopia, which made her bad at seeing thing long distance. According to the Medics, the short visioned was natural for Mari and it will return to a standard vision in no time. (When they clearly say no time, they obviously mean when Mari is in her mid-thirties – that's her assumption anyways)

As Mari stood tall, holding back a vicious sigh and waited for her turn, girls were cheering off in the background for a certain raven haired emo, boys were showing off of how shiny their weapons looked while Mari was scowling darkly at anyone who so much looked at her. Each of the guys took their turns, some of them hit the targets and others didn't do quite so well. There were very few, who actually got dead on with the targets.

Like none other than Uchiha Sasuke. Girls squealed in delight at the bird ass haired boy, that so much ignored the girls that were trying to get the attention. Mari rolled her jade orbs once again once he saw that the cocky Uchiha was ignoring them and getting all three targets dead on. Guys only growled out in mere jealously while the girls cheered on top of their lungs towards the so called _perfect_ Sasuke-kun. She had a sudden urge to throw up.

Rumour has it that he was the last survivor of his Clan after someone betrayed them and started to massacre the family. Mari didn't really pay attention to the urgent whispers in the class when Sasuke entered the room with a brooding personality; duller than it usually was. He had cold black eyes, and the redhead believed that Sasuke was so cold that he could kick an innocent homeless puppy if it had so much begged to him for a pat. She gazed over the Inuzuka Kiba who was proudly petting his happy pup on top of his head. The dog lover better keep an eye on him, because Sasuke might kick the poor thing when their guards are at their lowest.

An annoyed scoff come in front of her which made Mari quirk a suspicious eyebrow towards the scoffer. She wouldn't blame him... more like pity the blonde haired boy that wasn't amused by Perfect-san's awesome skills.

"He isn't that good. I'm better." Naruto grumbled behind Mari. She felt a small hint of pity for this blonde haired boy but it wasn't exposed out in front of the village. This was only because Uzumaki Naruto was an orphan too but unlike Sasuke, everyone treated him differently. Mari never comprehended on why, he was a little prankster that violated the buildings, scared away other bullies but the kid was actually pretty open with people… if they just let him open up.

That's when Mari comes in, when Naruto would sit in the playground alone she would simply sit beside him at the end of the day while she watched the sunset. She never said anything, but waited with him while he ranted on about his day. After his talking, Mari would silently stand up and go back to the training post so she could do a bit more training, leaving Naruto alone once more. Next day would be as if nothing had happened.

Mari hated the village and everyone in it, but for some reason she couldn't find herself to hate Naruto. He receives the harsh treatment of loneliness which was what Mari gets flooding in her chest but mostly distracts herself by training, and forgets the daily troubles of her life.

"Naruto. You're up." Iruka-sensei noted, making Mari furrow her brow in realisation of her daydream. The blonde haired knuckle head smirked and approached the post, before throwing the trio of shuriken. Whatever he had done, it nearly made Mari crack up laughing when she saw Iruka trembling while just above the shuriken impaled through the tree. The class started to laugh at Naruto's foolishness, the sounds of their bantering laughter drowned out Mari's ears.

She hated the sounds of laughter – especially with the intent to mock another skill. Mari didn't have any skills that she was naturally talented with – she had to work hard to build up her strength. It made her rather angry that he was teased. Nevertheless, Mari let out a scowl and stared away from the class, having nothing to do with it.

"Shut up!" Naruto suddenly seethed, leering with aversion at the laughing children. "When I become Hokage, all of you are gonna regret picking on me!" Oh that poor boy. Now Mari had to admit that the little fantasy that Naruto had was never going to come true. No one recognised him with such potential; they hated him and wouldn't even accept him as Hokage. She shrugged quietly to herself in deep thought; it was probably just some phase that he was going through.

Without another word, Mari approached him and gently shoved him, to make him stumble over his feet before sending Mari an annoyed glare.

"What was that for Mari?!" Naruto snapped, snarling viciously as Mari walked past him, wielding out her set of shuriken. She didn't turn to face him, but raised the pointed weapons above her face as she tried pinpointing her target.

"You're in the way. Shut up." Her voice growled, making Naruto grunt in response. The redhead flung her hand, releasing the shuriken to fire directly towards the targets but two of them missed, with the third one just getting into the target.

"Looks like the Death Starer still can't aim!" One of the fatter classmates sneered, along with a small group of boys that surrounded him. Soon enough the fan-girls gave a look of misfortune before laughing along with the rest of the class. The only ones that didn't laugh were the level-headed students.

Mari clicked her tongue as she thought of her nickname – Death Starer, it was well earned too. Since the redhead is known to glare furiously at anything or anyone, people gained chills down their spine as they met eyes with the glare, which gave them the feeling of death; hence why she was known as the Death Starer.

The laughter suddenly stopped when Mari reached into her pouch to retrieve a kunai. Her eyes narrowed sharply, wielding out the kunai almost as if she had thrown it and made the group of students flinch when she held it out in front of her. She may not have accurate skills, but if she had thrown the weapon then she could've seriously injured someone if she missed her intended target.

"Shut up," Mari muttered in a cold voice, just as she returned her kunai back into its pouch. "You aren't worth my time," Her brow fixed itself into an annoyed scowl, and shoved her hands in her pockets as she returned to the classroom. Naturally she would go sit by the tree, but since it was such a lovely and bright day the other kids would probably want to go out and play for a bit. Mari wasn't like that, not one bit. Yet she couldn't help but feel like she was forgetting something. It was important, and Mari really wanted to know what was going on this particular day, which was why she was training so early. She sat by her desk to go through a small meal of rice and curry, quickly eating it in case Choji was sitting around and intending on stealing her food.

Iruka entered the room with a tired expression on his face, when it turned to surprise at the sight of Mari. "Mari, what are you doing in here? Why aren't you outside?" His face had never shown surprise when he found Mari snoring in the middle of class, or she was glaring at the other kids, or maybe even snapping back at him but he showed surprise when she was sitting in the room, eating her food like no tomorrow.

"Too noisy outside," Mari replied when her mouth was empty. She had bits of rice and curry all around her mouth, she knew it but she didn't care. All she cared about was what was with the day feeling so nostalgic. "Hey Iruka-sensei, what's the date?"

Iruka frowned at Mari as she asked the question, nevertheless he answered, "January seven, Mari." He knew that the certain date was important to her, well he was one of the many Chunin who knew of the situation. Yet he still felt bad as he noticed the redhead stiffen.

Mari gritted her teeth and left the remaining rice and curry on the desk, walking calmly out of the door. She couldn't have forgotten... there was no way that she would have forgotten. Her insides were screaming at her that she did forget, and mentally telling her she should be ashamed of herself. _Damn! How could I forget?!_ Mari screamed at herself, a scowl plastered on her face as she just wanted to leave and get over the annoying guilt growing inside her.

"Mari, let me ask you something," Iruka interrupted, making her pause mid step out of the door. Her jade coloured eyes flashed with fury. Just wanting a bit of peace and quiet was so much to ask for nowadays. "Why don't you have a friend that you could talk to? You know you could always talk to me, I have no parents myself."

Her eyes flashed menacingly towards the sensei, narrowing slightly when she thought about opening up. She couldn't find herself looking towards anyone to talk to, she loathed the village. All the thoughts about deserting the village have crossed her mind numerous times, but she found herself realising that even if she hated the village, no one else would accept her as a shinobi – therefore she remained.

"Iruka-sensei," Mari's voice was cold; it made the Chunin frown in response. "What I go through is none of your business," She stated, her head turned back to leave the classroom. Each step she took made a squeak on the wooden floorboards, which made the muscles in her body clench in fury. Besides, friends to Mari were just like Sasuke's fangirls – pointless and unreliable.

Everyone in this pointless village was always telling her that she had the will of fire in her. The only flame that burned in Mari was the flame of hatred, the fact that no one had even bothered to support her. She hadn't suffered the loneliness forever, but it was they who crossed the line when she finally snapped. Mari saw everyone the same, ever since the incident – they have avoided her altogether, excluded her as a family.

Mari scolded herself again for forgetting. She was so deep into her thoughts that the last thing that she expected was to be suddenly pushed. The last thing in general was to be actually pushed by another human being. It caught her off guard, but she managed to plant her feet firmly into the ground before she fell, but there was a sudden thud to the person that had pushed her. They stared at Mari with wide brown eyes. Unlike every other time, Mari widened her green orbs and could feel nothing but the surprise that was flooding through her body; no one had ever bumped into her so suddenly. Her eyes narrowed dimly at the frightened, and the two recognised each other instantly.

No one _ever_ had the guts to push Mari, not even try. Her reputation would frighten anyone who so much tried so let alone bump into her accidentally.

"I'm sorry Mari-san! I didn't mean to bump into you, I swear it!" Shizu whimpered, bowing her head repentantly. The locks of her black hair went down to her chin, tickling the skin of her face.

Surprisingly, Mari didn't even glare at the girl, though her jaded orbs were described as a green fire flickering in her eyes. Her eyebrow rose sharply, as the girl's eyes remained wide and full of shock. She hadn't ever seen the black haired girl cry – ever. The girl was so quiet that she didn't talk to many people, all except for Kiba who practically did the talking for her.

"Who upset you?"

It was the only response that Mari could think of. Despite Mari hates the village, she couldn't stand that small soft spot for someone crying. The conclusion that Mari could come up with was that she was once in their shoes, bawling out like a little baby.

A soft stutter managed to escape the girl's mouth. "P-Pardon?"

Like a switch, Mari's scowl deepened due to the annoyance. "I asked who in hell made you upset?! Can you not understand the basic Japanese?!" She growled as Shizu flinched in response. "You aren't stupid! Tell me."

"…"

"Speak up brat. I can't hear you." Mari's patience was thinning, and it made Shizu inwardly panic in a louder tone.

"It was Ami! Ami and her friends!" She yelped as her body cringed in fright.

Mari refrained herself from rolling her eyes. Ami was always causing trouble for the weaker girls wasn't she? The purple haired brat just couldn't find a better job. Without a response, Mari walked past Shizu silently as her fist balled up tightly. Shizu stood to her feet and slowly followed Mari, it surprised her that the redhead didn't scold her for following but Shizu stopped when Mari stepped outside to confront the girls.

Mari didn't stop however, her eyes were only dead fixed on Ami who finally took notice on Mari and stood her ground. The redhead chuckled lowly, she had always liked a challenge and Ami trying to stand up to her just tipped the scales.

-:-

For the first time in her life, Shizu was surprised. She had been teased on a regular basis, all because she had a minor crush on Sasuke and it was because she was quiet that she couldn't defend herself. Kiba usually spoke for her, but Kiba and Akamaru weren't always going to be with her and Shizu knew that. So when Mari had asked her on who upset her, she was stunned.

Shizu tried to avoid Mari for her own sake, because of the rumours of her rough attitude only made her afraid of the redhead. She told Mari that Ami was the one who bullied her, the one who keeps calling her incapable of being a shinobi, something that Shizu has desperately tried to work for. They only made her want to hide under a rock and never see a ray of light. All because of a crush.

Hearing a scream of horror, Shizu snapped her eyes over towards Mari standing over Ami who was recovering from her fall.

"Who cares about how Shizu looks like? You look like a plum yet you don't hear us whining about it." Mari had said to the purple haired girl as her friends looked at Mari with shock and horror.

Ami tried to keep a brave face, but eventually began to crack and rushed off with her friends for help of a sensei. Shizu furrowed her brow, pulling her face into a confused frown as Mari slowly returned to her, eyelids closed and her hands in her pockets.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but Mari had already beaten her.

"Don't ask about it brat," She muttered in a low voice, opening her eyes to reveal the brilliant green. Now that Shizu couldn't stop staring at Mari's eyes, she noticed that the redhead had rather calming eyes for a rough girl. "Tie your hair back up, and don't _ever_ come crying to me again." Mari stated with a hint of frustration in her voice as she turned away on the spot to walk deeper out to the fields.

Shizu widened her eyes; the wind blew in slowly which made her hair tickle the skin of her face. Did Mari really back Shizu up? As if she was a friend? In a flash, the quiet girl flew out of the window. A different girl had taken over her for that moment, as if she wasn't frightened of the taller girl.

"Wait! Mari!" At the mention of her name, Mari halted in her tracks and glanced back at Shizu, her emerald orbs were hard again. Shizu's quiet girl returned to her at the sight of her angered eyes.

"What do you want?" Mari demanded, raising a crimson eyebrow sharply. Her eyes were still pounding down with the rough attitude that the redhead bore, but Shizu found her confidence again. Her brow furrowed together in determination as she glanced back at her fellow classmate.

"Um… Thank you." Shizu replied, smiling slightly when Mari's lips pulled back into a cocky smirk. This would be the first time that Shizu had ever seen Mari smirk. Again, Mari turned away and even though her face was hidden, Shizu could tell that she was still smirking.

"Any time, brat." With those final words, Mari disappeared out of Shizu's sight. The sounds of her sandals crunched softly on the dirt under the soles turned softer each time as Mari vanished.

Shizu still smiled slightly. It was as if someone else had replaced her during that time, and Shizu couldn't see any hatred that Mari usually showed to the class. She wouldn't have guessed, of all people… Nara Shizu managed to befriend the Death Starer. Her smile widened somewhat when she raised her hands to tie her ponytail back up and accepted the mental challenge.

If Shizu was meant to be the one to change Mari, then she would do anything to be her friend and to change the redhead's opinion on the village.

**A/n: Something I didn't note in the previous chapter that this is eventual pairings. Since I'm following the canon, I'm pretty much sticking to the canon as the base of the story (Okay I must be tired for misspelling story five times) which leads me to my next point - this is OC centric and is closer with Sakamoto Mari more than anyone else though I will have her comrades in this from time to time. This means they will have their own character development and only stick to the canon when the rest of Rookies/Konoha 11 pop up. ****  
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**I think I just got attached to my little redhead more than the others. She's so adorable as an angry kid.**

**Mari: *Glares***

******So I finally figured out how I am going to update my stories - My Bleach story, Moon on Ice will be posted on Mondays (time will differ depending on my mood) but I will most likely posted them at 9-10 pm (UTC + 10... I hate time zones... -_-') Then this story will be on Wednesdays same time and my final story The Hidden World will be on Fridays, once again same time. **

**07/08/2013 -**


	3. Chapter 2: A friendship!

**A/n: Thanks for the favourites, follows and the review :D Is it me or is it really annoying that Kishimoto is just making Tobi too powerful? I can't stand overpowered characters, which leads me to my next reason of slowly losing my interest to Naruto. Naruto is starting to get overpowered that it ticks me off. Don't get me wrong, I will always like Naruto but ever since 614 I've been annoyed that Kishimoto chooses to not get rid of anyone else.****  
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**I'm sorry, I'm just ranting... let me continue :D**

**Warning: This does contain swearing and but it should never be too bad. May contain OOC**

**Disclaimer: As well as you, I don't own Naruto. Naruto is owned by the one known as Kishimoto, if I had been in his shoes... maybe the story would be better *Okay I'm just being cocky here, I can't draw for - pardon my English - shit* and events from 614 would never happen. Yep. I'm still upset from that, I hope you're happy. And Tenten would get some love! The cover image is my own however.**

**Chapter 2: A friendship?!**

Mari had spent the rest of her day practicing her aim, which had only proven to be a waste of her time. Every time she had missed or cut herself, the redhead would snarl in frustration and try again. She cursed her blurry vision on the targets, mildly surprised that she was allowed to attend the academy because of her eye condition.

When she concluded nothing to her questions, Mari decided that she had enough miserable throwing skills and went to the playground. It didn't take long for Mari to realise that she had been training the entire day, her emerald orbs raised up to meet the ginger tinted sky. For a place that Mari disliked, it had a rather calming setting.

By the looks of it, all of the students had returned with their parents. With a sigh, Mari growled uncomfortably as she sat on the steps, narrowing her eyes at the sky.

"You're here again!"

The redhead didn't need to move to recognise the excited tone of Naruto's. Slowly her eyes observed him, spotting the excited glint in his bright azure orbs. He really needed to get a hobby if he found talking to her amusing. As usual, Mari didn't reply and stared back at the sky, which signalled the blonde haired Uzumaki to sit with her.

"Why do you act differently when we're in class?" Naruto wondered, frowning when he didn't hear a response from his female companion. "You don't seem to ever talk – but when you're in class you act like you're the toughest of them all." He grumbled as he shuffled his feet into the concrete.

"What do you expect me to say?" Mari retorted in a cold voice, never taking her eyes off the sky. The blonde gave a look towards her in surprise, his bright orbs widening as he stared at her, "I don't deal with those touchy mushy feelings that you crave." She growled, forming a scowl on her face.

"Well… you aren't that bad Mari… You aren't definitely as annoying as Sasuke… man! I can't stand that loser!" He growled through his teeth, glaring back at the ground. Mari silently agreed that Sasuke really got to her nerves without even trying by acting 'oh so perfect'. She let out a soft scoff, realising how stupid she just sounded in her head.

However he didn't had to act like everyone degraded him. Sasuke was always respected by the girls, and envied by the boys – especially by Naruto. The village doesn't whisper in each other's ears of how much the Hokage should kick the Uchiha Prodigy out of the village. They always stay away from Naruto, and since because Mari was alone – she didn't have any parents telling her what to do, she hung out with Naruto. It wasn't that she thought of him as a friend or anything, she just preferred his company more than everyone else.

"They still doubt my skills," He continued, well aware that Mari wasn't going to respond. Though people viewed him as an idiotic loser, the kid had enough intelligence to figure out Mari wasn't going to talk anymore. "It's my dream to become Hokage," There he goes dreaming again. The only reason why Mari had doubt for Naruto was because no one would accept him as a prankster. "What's your dream Mari?"

The redhead felt something twitch in his chest at the mention of her name. Mari didn't really have a dream, well she did but it was different compared to the other children. She didn't answer, but kept repeating her past words in her head, as if it would reveal itself.

_"I want to become as strong as my okaa-san! So she can have a reason to smile at me!"_

Her feet made her stand up forcibly, making Naruto call out in confusion. "Eh? You're leaving early?"

Mari inwardly clenched her jaw in frustration. Kami, he was so persistent. She would offer Naruto a bowl of ramen but she didn't bring enough money for it. "I'm going to train," The redhead declared firmly, as her back faced Naruto. "If you want to beat Sasuke, then I suggest that you go train too."

Naruto's eyes widened in realisation, "You're right! I'm going to beat that Sasuke one day! And I hope everyone is there to see it!" He seemed to add a skip in his run as he fled to find his training spot, leaving Mari in peace once again. She perked her head with a scowl when she heard a stutter, making the figure hide behind the walls. The girl shoved her hands in her pockets to approach the other person, and widened her eyes when the figure became clear enough for her blind eyes to see.

"Hinata. What are you doing here?" Mari asked in a low voice, not loud enough for the Hyuga heiress to hear anyways. Her lavender orbs widened in horror at the sight of Mari when their eyes connected, before she scurried back into hiding like one of those hermit crabs. The redhead twitched her eyebrow, they furrowed together in a confused scowl. That girl was around nearly every time Mari was near Naruto. She couldn't figure it out, and concluded that Hinata was just one weird girl.

Mari shrugged it off as it was no big deal and began walking her own way, aware that she had taken a very familiar path. She barely had enough time to consider where she was going, because she already knew, with the nostalgic feeling weighing her chest down. It had been a while since Mari had come to the place, surrounded by thick trees and tall weeds. Her feet were controlling her, finding its way all the way to a giant rock with a silver haired man staring down at it.

By the looks of the man, Mari had a guess that the silver haired man was a Jonin. The dark blue mask covered the bottom part of his face, making her curious to see what his mouth looked like.

_Damn curiosity._ A voice spat in frustration as she remained behind the tree, praying for the Jonin to just leave.

"I know you're there," The calm voice called out, making Mari jolt in surprise. Her frustrations fumed through her brains. How did he know that she was there?! She answered the question instantly as she realised that this man was possibly a Jonin, being able to find a pathetic academy student like her would've been no trouble. "You should come on out."

Mari held in a disgusted snort as she made herself visible next to the rock. She might as well get it over and done with, he wasn't going to leave her alone. Her emerald orbs practically leered at the Jonin with one black eye, the other covered by the famous forehead protector. Maybe someone slashed his eye or something…

"You're Mari," He mused, raising an eyebrow quietly towards her.

"What's it to you?" Mari retorted with a scowl, folding her arms comfortably in front of her chest.

"You look a lot like her its almost frightening." The man noted which made the smaller girl narrow her eyes dangerously, "You even have her glare, the name's Hatake Kakashi." What did this guy know about her mother? Mari wanted to snort again, but she distracted herself by staring at the rock with hard green orbs.

It wasn't at the bottom of the list anymore, but Mari felt something tighten in her chest when she read her mother's name countless times, in scripted in plain writing.

Kasumi

Her mother never had a last name, or maybe she did and never bothered to reveal it to anyone so she could let go of the past. According to her mother, the Sakamoto name came from Mari's father, who she had never met and probably never will meet. There was a part of Mari that hated her father for just leaving her, but without her father she wouldn't have been with her mother.

"You don't seem too happy."

No way. Wait to go Captain Obvious. She whipped her head towards him with an annoyed glare. Usually students would have been bothered by the scowl, but this laid-back man hadn't battered an eyelash.

"But you blame yourself." Kakashi continued, making Mari's brow deepen. When he got the guess right, the silver haired Jonin stared back at the stone. "We both feel that way then."

-:-

There were a lot of things that Shizu had expected when she returned to the building that was known as her home. However she didn't expect her one-year old deer to greet her with a gentle head butt. Shizu giggled quietly as she pet the animal's head – even though she has only had the deer for one year it has already grown slightly taller than her.

"Antomaru," She chanted happily, pulling out a small treat and fed the young deer. "You are getting too tall for me!" Her giggles continued when Antomaru nudged her gently as he finished his treat.

_"Shikazu!"_

When Shizu heard her original name being called out by her mother, Shizu gave a final pet to her deer. "I'll see you after dinner Antomaru!" She promised quietly, running back to get inside her house. The story was that her true name was Shikazu, but it was because of her quiet attitude that Kiba started to call her 'Shizu' for quiet – soon enough everyone else began calling her by her nickname. So far the only ones that call her by her full name were both of her parents.

Shizu took off her sandals and rushed to the tables, bowing to her family before she took her spot and lifted her chopsticks to pick at the chopped up mackerel. The girl wasn't as interested with the fish as her lazy brother would be but she felt in the mood to eat it for some odd reason.

"Did you two have a lovely day?" Her mother inquired, not noticing that Shizu hadn't eaten anything yet. To be honest, her mother was a lovely woman until she got pissed off – which was pretty terrifying to Shizu's eyes. Shizu found herself realising that she was being spoken to, so she shoved the food in her mouth immediately so that her brother could speak first, hiding a giggle when she heard him mutter 'troublesome'.

"It was a drag." Shikamaru groaned, before he shoved the food in his mouth. "It takes so much effort to write down all the stuff that Iruka-sensei says." He muttered in continuation, his dark eyes glinted with slight interest when he eyed Shizu who was chewing intently on her food. "But ask Shizu, she's had an interesting day."

Shizu nearly choked on her food in surprise. She coughed loudly and once the food cleared the airway she sent an annoyed glare at Shikamaru. It was as if he knew that Mari had scared away her bullies – that's when it hit her. Her eyes closed angrily and she found herself cursing Shikamaru's unusual high IQ.

The mother of the children, Nara Yoshino paused in thought and turned to stare at Shizu with curiosity sparking in her dark orbs. "What happened at the academy Shikazu?" Shizu blushed quietly when her father, Nara Shikaku started to take an interest in her. His eyebrow rose peculiarly as he observed his only daughter.

"Well… I kind of… might of… gotten help from Sakamoto Mari."

The parents paused and gave a brief glance towards each other. She only concluded that her parents knew about Mari as the orphan who loathed the village and spent her time training. Shizu wanted nothing more than to hide under a giant boulder and dig a little deeper so that she was in the ground. Shikamaru lost interest in the conversation and went to eat again.

"That is interesting." Shikaku mused, giving another look towards Yoshino. "It would be nice if you had… female friends that weren't obsessing over Uchiha Sasuke." Oh Kami. If Kiba had been on the scene, Mari wouldn't have done anything for the situation. Just because Mari had helped her, it didn't mean Shizu was friends with her – they barely knew each other to be called… friends. "Maybe you could invite her to dinner tomorrow." The elder Nara suggested, which made Yoshino smile in agreement.

"We can welcome her as if she is a part of this family!" Yoshino smiled warmly, which made Shikamaru grumble to himself while eating his meal.

"This is going to be troublesome." He muttered under his breath, making Shizu giggle quietly. That was her next goal – to invite Mari to dinner the next day. Hopefully the redhead would accept, for her own sake.

-:-

"Alright, choose a partner and show me how you do in your taijutsu." Iruka-sensei ordered the students the next day. Everyone jumped away from Mari to pair up with someone before they got paired up with Mari, knowing truly that she specialised in fist-to-fist combat – she wasn't number one, but that was her good skill but she packs a lot of energy in her punches which often left bruising. Well _nearly_ everyone jumped away; Shizu raised her hand voluntarily to be Mari's partner. Whispers around the training ground echoed through Shizu's ears, even Mari had a look of surprise on her face.

"I... want to fight... against Mari." The black haired girl stated with a slight timid tone in her voice. Her brown eyes unsure of what she was doing. Everyone knew that Shizu wasn't good at fighting, especially with her taijutsu. She cleared her throat bravely, before her round eyes gave a determined expression. "I want to fight Mari."

Mari raised an eyebrow at the girl in front of her. Okay… what the heck was wrong with this girl? She was scared of Mari, and now she was attempting to fight the redhead. She let out an annoyed scoff. Pathetic.

"Alright Shizu, you can pair up with Mari." Iruka gave the ponytailed girl a worried glance before he gave Mari a warning look, to go easy on her but the most he got was a responding glare.

"Fine, give me your best shot brat." Mari relaxed her muscles and stood still. "I'll let you hit me first."

Shizu widened her eyes in surprise when Mari let her go for a hit. She looked around Mari, and watched the redhead silently, trying to figure something out. Some of the students stopped sparing to see how Shizu would turn out. Hopefully nothing too serious would happen.

After a few moments passed, Mari rolled her eyes impatiently. "Is this a joke?! I thought you wanted to actually fight me, not have a stupid stare down." She hissed, cracking her fists and her neck. "If you're not going to hit me, then I am going to attack!" Mari charged towards Shizu at swift speeds to take a swig towards her, but her fist hit the air. This surprised her, as well as the watchers. "What?"

The little brat was too fast for her liking, and it didn't make anything better that her body frame was tinier than Mari's. She whirled around on the spot, noticing that Shizu had skidded behind her, prepared for an attack.

"You are impatient Mari; I gathered that so I waited until you struck." Shizu raised her leg to swiftly kick at the redhead, but Mari blocked the kick before it could contact her face. Mari judged that it wasn't a strong kick, but it gave enough force to make her skid on the dirt. "I thought that you said I could hit you first."

Mari closed her eyes and nodded. "Right, you win... I'll give you a reward, an elbow and a fist." Shizu furrowed her brow to question the redhead when suddenly she felt a force go directly to her stomach. Shizu coughed out, her eyes widened with shock as Mari pulled away her elbow and sent her fist straight towards her but Shizu couldn't lose just yet. She dove out of the direction of Mari's menacing fist and rolled onto the ground, trying to catch the breath. "You're smart brat, I woulda knocked you out if that hit." Mari commented, slowly showing a smirk of approval. "Not bad at all."

"Alright, that's enough." Iruka scolded, walking between the two girls with a frown on his face as he turned to Mari. "Mari, I thought I told you to go easy on her."

"Liar. You didn't say anything about going easier on her, and usually I wouldn't let them have an attack first!" Mari argued with a plastered scowl on her face again. She hated going too easy on them, actually to be honest she hadn't been easy against anyone except Shizu. Shizu appeared to be the kind of girl that was terrified of her. "What kind of Shinobi would I be if I went easy on them?"

"Iruka-sensei?" The sensei turned towards Shizu with a frown as she stood back onto her feet with a smile. "Don't worry about me, I am alright." That was a lie; Shizu could feel as if there was a massive bruise turning dark purple on her stomach. It wasn't Mari using any of her chakra, but it was completely brute strength. "I'm just going to go sit out for the rest of the matches."

"Alright, Shizu." Iruka nodded before turning towards Mari with a glare as the other kids surrounded Shizu with curiosity. "Mari, you should go apologise to Shizu, she volunteered to be your partner."

"Well you don't tell me to go easy on the other kids, and to apologise to them." Mari noted a frown on her face as she tried to state her argument, "Why's Shizu so different?"

"Because she wants to become friends with you."

Mari felt as if her heart was caught in her throat. Friends? Would the brat go through a bruised stomach just to be her friend? Well then again, Shizu was smart enough to dodge two of her punches. Usually her challengers were all about wanting to beat some sense into her, though Shizu was willing to become Mari's friend. The redhead scowled, before shoving her hands in her pockets and headed towards the ponytailed girl.

"Fine, I'll go talk to her." Mari growled, keeping her green eyes leering heavily at the sensei.

Kiba was crouching with Shizu when he saw the redhead approach them. "Hey, Mari back off why don't you?" He growled, showing Mari a nasty glare.

"Save it dog breath." Mari hissed with violence, her green eyes gazing over to Shizu. She smiled brightly at the sight of Mari, before reassuring Kiba that she was fine with a faint smile.

"It's okay Kiba, Mari won't hurt me." Shizu promised, leaving Kiba to scowl at Mari before walking off. "Hello Mari."

"So... why the heck did you volunteer to fight me?" The redhead girl asked, plopping herself beside Shizu with a scowl on her face as she watched Sasuke and Naruto fight.

Shizu's cheeks turned pink in embarrassment as she poked her index fingers together. "Well... I wanted to ask you if you want to come to dinner tonight with my Okaa-san, Otou-san and Shika but you were too into the fight."

Mari took a look towards Shikamaru who was lying down on the ground besides a happily munching, Choji. She looked back at the smiling Shizu and her frown deepened. "You don't really look like Shikamaru, even though you're his sister."

Shizu gasped dramatically, "What? We do look alike!" She protested, grabbing the end of her small ponytail that appeared to be in its usual pineapple shape. "Then again, Otou-san says I have a bit of Okaa-san's appearance."

"Right." Mari mumbled, laying her head against the tree that they were sitting against. "I'll come to dinner, if I don't have to say sorry."

Shizu giggled at the redhead, facing her in a strange way. "You've never apologised to anyone I suppose."

"That's about it..." Mari replied with a bored tone as she spoke, "And I wanna keep it that way until I actually need it."

"Alright Mari," The ponytailed girl promised with a wide smile. "Maybe I can get you to apologise to me someday, cause I have a feeling that we're gonna be best friends."

Mari closed her eyes and chose to not respond.

Iruka watched from the distance with a faint smile. That was one orphan that now had a friend; he's got to work on the other two-

"Naruto! Stop trying to sneak attack Sasuke!" The sensei snapped at the blonde who was about to jump Sasuke. Sasuke snorted with demise and walked his own way.

...

That night, Shizu was happily skipping alone next to a trudging Mari who wanted to just eat and leave. But she wouldn't do that, she may hate the village but Mari wasn't that cruel. When they entered into the estate, Shizu took off her sandals and walked inside the house, with Mari copying her actions.

"Okaa-san! Otou-san! This is Mari!" Shizu introduced, literally dragging Mari into the living room. Both of the parents gave a look of recognition, before they gave each other a sideways glance. As Mari observed Shizu's dad she could easily see where Shikamaru got his looks from, with the ponytail on his head like the Nara siblings, the scars ran down his face made Mari ponder on how the man gotten it. Shizu's mother looked nothing like her kids except for the calm eyes and smile that Shizu inherited.

"Hey..." Mari grunted in greeting, she was just socially awkward when it came to meeting people.

"Hello Mari, I'm Yoshino and this is Shikaku, we heard that you helped Shikazu out." The woman introduced sweetly, for some reason Mari could see that this woman had an inner demon in her when she was talking to her family about something serious.

"Uh..." Mari really didn't know what to say.

"Oh goodie." A mutter from the other side of the room made Mari scowl in annoyance. Shikamaru was yawning as he entered the room, giving a blank stare to Mari. "She's here."

"Hey!" Mari growled in annoyance as she recognised the lazy Nara, clenching her fist threateningly. "What the heck is your problem Shikamaru?!" Naturally, it was like this – Shikamaru would say something and Mari would get annoyed at his comment.

"That you're too troublesome." He replied lazily, waving his hand dismissively at her, "You argue and complain like a child." Shikamaru frowned and scratched the back of his head. "Is it me or women are always like this?"

Shizu pouted as if she was insulted. "Hey Shika, that's cruel!" However, Mari had taken more offense to it than the ponytailed girl.

"What was that?!" Mari roared furiously, her fist tightening its clench as she threatened to pound the lazy boy right on the spot. "You wanna say that closer to my face baboon?!" Fortunately for him, Shizu jumped in the way and patted the redhead's shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Mari, Mari! You know what Shika is like!" Shizu chided worriedly as she tried helping out her new companion to quieten down a bit. However Mari calming down was the least of her worries. With a sudden urge, Mari pushed Shizu off of her, making her fall to the ground so suddenly. Her brown eyes widened with fright, and Mari could see the betrayal written in her eyes. The way Shizu began to tear up as if she had just found out the family pet had died, or as if she didn't get the present that she wanted. Something about that look ticked Mari off, it showed a look of weakness and that it made Mari feel angrier because it was affecting her. What about those times when they were told that a shinobi never shows emotions, especially tears because it revealed weaknesses?

"Thanks for dinner." She growled out sarcastically as she left the compound, but she never forgot her courtesies. Grabbing her sandals quickly, she walked out of the Nara estate and walked at a reasonably slow place, keeping her jade orbs by the starry sky. Guilt clogged her chest as she realised on what she had done to Shizu. It wasn't the girl's fault that Shikamaru was just an annoying jerk, heck it was her fault for being an unable to control her emotions. "Damn!" Mari cursed in annoyance, kicking an empty can with fury.

She wanted to run, be free of this anger attitude inside of her. Iruka had said it was because she had no friends to talk about her pent up feelings. Now she knew why. Her pride fought back however, saying that the brat should've known better to bring a violent orphan to her home. Mari's eyes focused on the etchings of the Hokage faces and sighed with pure exhaustion. Naturally she couldn't control the fury inside her. It made her feel strong and alive.

"You know, shoving my sister like that wasn't the best way of making friends." The lazy voice caught on Mari's attention which made her turn and scowl at Shikamaru. It was his fault that she snapped in the first place, no one else's. Shizu just happened to pay the price by being in the way.

"Be quiet you, I prefer to have no friends anyways." Mari replied coldly, turning away from him and continue back to her home. Who needed friends anyways? It wasn't like they were going to survive anyways. A life as a shinobi is definitely a tough one, and it consisted of deaths.

"I know that Shizu is troublesome, but she really respects you." Shikamaru stated, forcing Mari's feet to stop moving automatically. Her eyes widened as her face remained hidden in front of Shikamaru as he continued to persuade Mari, "And I know that you care for her too, so I would recommend that you apologise to her. Just saying," The Nara footsteps were getting fainter as he disappeared back into the night, and Mari turned around one final time.

Back when she helped Shizu, she thought she did it out of pity. When she volunteered to be her partner, Mari had concluded that Shizu was insane but inviting her to dinner, treating her like family? It made the pain slither away.

"Nara Shikamaru, you're a pain in the ass," She whispered, her eyes narrowed dimply as her lips formed a smirk.

:-:

Shizu entered the academy the next day and noticed that Mari didn't arrive yet. She sighed gratefully and sat behind Sasuke so that she could have a valid reason to stare at him all day, wincing at the pain of her stomach from the bruise. Her eyes closed for about a second, until the fresh scent of dango reached her nose. The ponytailed girl snapped her eyes opened and turned towards the fresh scent.

"Sorry Shizu."

"Mari?" Shizu widened her eyes in fright as she heard the redhead properly apologising her, with a stick of dango as a bribe of forgiveness. Still somewhat frightened, Shizu accepted the dango and quickly ate it, keeping her brown eyes on her as she sat down beside her.

"I'm sorry for hitting you too roughly and pushing you into the ground." She repeated, before a cocky smirk appeared on her face. "Let's do our best, eh!"

Shizu began to smile, realising that Mari had finally accepted her as a true friend. "Yeah!" She didn't know what happened last night, but she knew that Mari was finally developing her open nature. The brunette's smile grew wider as she realised that Mari began to care for one another, so far... the road to changing her was working.

"Oh yeah, that's the last time I'll ever apologise to you."

And she's back.

**A/n: And here is the last chapter as the little protagonists as kiddies! Next chapter will have familiar canon scenes - which makes me excited because I get to start on my characters**

**Please review, follow or favourite **

**14/08/2013 -**


	4. Chapter 3: The next step in life

**A/n: Thanks for the favourites, follows :D ****  
**

**...**

**I'll just post up the chapter...**

**Warning: This does contain swearing and but it should never be too bad. May contain OOC**

**Disclaimer: As well as you, I don't own Naruto. Naruto is owned by the one known as Kishimoto, if I had been in his shoes... maybe the story would be better *Okay I'm just being cocky here, I can't draw for - pardon my English - shit* and events from 614 would never happen. Yep. I'm still upset from that, I hope you're happy. And Tenten would get some love! The cover image is my own however.**

**Chapter 3: The next step in life**

"But it's true!" The young Nara exclaimed while she and Mari calmly walked to the academy. Shizu now wore a caramel coloured jacket over her singlet that showed the wired mesh underneath her clothing, and wore blue knee-length slacks instead of her mini shorts to cover more of her skin, "Sasuke-kun is really cool."

Mari raised an eyebrow as she stared back at Shizu, emerald orbs barely holding any interest. "Okay, why is Sasuke _really cool_ then?" Instead of her clothes, Mari had replaced them with a dark green sleeved tee-shirt that loosely covers her bandaged chest with black trousers that strapped down to her ankles. Her hair had rather grown past her shoulders, looking like a crimson bird's nest but she still had the messy strands framing her face.

Shizu had to stop walking to consider the question and find a way to properly answer, making Mari snort and walk ahead with a confident smirk. The sun beamed down at the both of them, threatening to shoot out all the heat it could give for the warm village.

"Sasuke-kun is cool because he does really well!" Her bright voice made the redhead roll her eyes. She caught up to Mari and started to skip beside her. "And he's absolutely cute! I mean, it's not every day that you have a very sexy boy in a class, in fact… the thing is yearly! I heard there was someone incredibly cool in the previous year! He was a genius too!"

"The previous year?" Mari's questioning was sceptical as she took another glance at Shizu. How did they get into this conversation again? Oh right, they were simply discussing the graduation test the following day and figuring out who would pass. Which got Shizu into rambling mode. The years went quickly for the duo, Shizu had changed from the shy, quiet girl to the excited and cheery girl who stood next to Mari – the redhead however, had become rather protective of Shizu, even if she won't admit it out loud.

Shizu held her chin as she tried to recollect the name. Her eyebrows formed into a crocked line as she tried recollecting the old information. "I don't know his name… but I think he is related to Hinata-chan or something."

Mari's brow furrowed deeply as she felt the urge to swing her fist across her companion's head. Instead, Mari took a deep breath, and gazed at Shizu with annoyance. "Does it matter? The chances of us meeting him are most unlikely – now can we just be quiet, and walk?" For once, Shizu complied as they finally entered the academy boundaries, and entering the building. It had been six long years since they first entered these walls, only growing slightly comfortable with them.

"Ah... Iruka-sensei isn't here." Shizu chimed brightly as the duo entered the classroom, slowly collecting the other academy students. Mari scowled as she sat down, leaned back on the chair with a bored expression when Shizu mirrored her actions and sat comfortably on the chair. The morning was warm, easily cooking up the skin on Mari's body as she heard Kiba's loud voice booming the room. She spared a glance towards Shizu, who leant on the desk and sighed dully.

"Shizu…" The mentioned girl perked her head towards Mari, who was glaring out towards the window. "You can talk to Kiba if you want…"

Shizu's expression wasn't hard to read. Her childish grin widened as she stood up and promised Mari that she wasn't going to be long before she rushed off to go talk to the dog lover. Mari's eyes peered over to the duo, Kiba greeted her with a smirk while Shizu laughed along. She saw that they were close friends, and sometimes wondered on why Shizu preferred hanging out with Mari as opposed to Kiba, someone who had spoken up for her from the times that she was too quiet to talk.

Shizu's quiet girl disappeared shortly after hanging out with Mari constantly. Some people had said that her rough attitude finally got through Shizu, which gave her the confidence that she had today but Mari didn't believe so. Shizu wanted to work hard, believing that one day she would have enough potential of being of an incredible shinobi and asked Mari to help her train. Mari didn't want to go easy on her at all, and went full on – even then, Shizu had only been able to win her fights with strategy, not strength. As Shizu won more often, she became aware of her skills and began to show off her buoyancy by slowly morphing into a new person.

"Hey Mari," Choji interrupted Mari's thoughts, making her whirl her head to send an annoyed scowl. It bothered Mari more that she couldn't intimidate Choji like the other students. Her scowl deepened, and Choji remained unfazed as he continued munching on his barbeque snacks with his greasy limbs.

"What now?" She growled, eyeing the food for a moment before turning away from the Akimichi.

"Are you nervous for this exam? I heard that people do end up failing and retake the test countless times!" He exclaimed, mostly referring to the blonde Uzumaki. Speaking of Naruto… Mari raised an eyebrow at the empty seat – where was he? She turned back to face Choji; eyes sharply narrowed at the kind boy.

"Not really. I know I'm gonna pass this test with ease." The redhead declared confidently, ignoring the frown from Choji, "And the first thing I'm gonna do as a Genin is kill the ones who doubt my skill." Her voice turned eerie, making Choji shiver quietly and shudder at the sight until Mari chuckled. Finally, she had struck some fear into the harmless boy, "I'm kidding. Honestly, I would've gone to celebrate with barbeque but I don't have enough money… maybe when I promote to Chunin."

"That sounds interesting." Choji agreed, going back to his delightful snacks as he ended the conversation.

-:-

Shizu on the other hand was enjoying her conversation with Kiba, who was boasting about his skills with his trusty pal.

His broad smirk was one of the few obvious traits that the Inuzuka had which revealed his brash attitude. Not that Shizu was affected by it anyways. "We can breeze through this test easily! Right, Akamaru?" Hearing the excited yap from the small white pup, Shizu began to feel slightly nervous at the thoughts of the exam. She may have gained a bit more confidence over the years, but it didn't mean that she was confident in her own abilities. It was only recently when she managed to contain her Jutsu, unlike her genius brother who snored most of the time and still managed to get it right before her.

"Well… I don't know if I'll do well…" Shizu admitted, looking away to think if she could pass, "If it was a written exam, then I may be able to pass but-" She was cut off by a gentle flick of her nose, making her scowl in annoyance. Whenever Kiba wanted Shizu to be quiet, all he had to do was flick her nose to make her silent because she would be too busy glaring at him from touching her face.

Kiba showed an annoyed glare at Shizu as he scolded the ponytailed female. "Stop putting yourself down Shizu. You'll do fine, right Akamaru?" The small white dog let out a small yap above his head, making Shizu roll her eyes childishly, "If anyone was to fail, it would've been Naruto."

Shizu blinked innocently at the thoughts of Naruto. "Naruto? But I don't think he'll fail; Iruka-sensei cares too much about him to fail him. It would be too harsh." She argued, suddenly facing the front when she heard a sudden yell from the sensei, who threw a tied up Naruto onto the ground. The class rolled their eyes, muttered of how foolish the blonde boy was or didn't care while Shizu began to pale nervously at the sight of the annoyed sensei bellowing at the blonde. He was in a furious mood again.

"Is it harsh now?" Kiba whispered in a low voice as he watched Iruka give another lecture to Naruto.

-:-

Mari wanted pound her head in annoyance as she heard Iruka explained some gibberish about failing or something. She didn't really listen to details. Yes, Narutardo was an absolute idiot for running around and acting like he's the best in the world only to end up miserably failing. But still, Iruka didn't need to repeat the facts if he wasn't going to listen to them in the first place.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto," Iruka complained, as he ignored the glares at the blonde knucklehead from the other classmates. They just wanted to get the graduation test done so they could become Genin and actually go on missions. Obviously Naruto stopped people from doing that. "You failed the graduation test last time, _and _the time before that. After today, you've got another chance, and you'll probably fail _again_."

Naruto snorted arrogantly and turned away from the sensei, while Mari was quite surprised that Iruka could actually hold his temper for so long. Wait... that must be a new record. She would have to remind Shizu to go get him a congratulations present for containing a bit more anger than usual.

"Because you missed it Naruto, _everyone _will review the Transformation Jutsu!"

The instant response made Mari literally stand back up and curl her lip back viciously. "No!" She protested fiercely. "There's no way that I'm gonna do some pointless Transformation Jutsu!" Now it was personal. Just as she was going to leap over the table to strangle the ramen loving kid, she felt a sudden chill in the air. Her green eyes slowly flickered towards the direction of her bad feeling and noticed that Shino was quietly sitting only a few desks away. Her eyes widened, and he appeared to be staring straight ahead as Mari slouched back into the chair as she avoided to look at Shino.

It was no longer personal.

The class lined up while Mari and Shizu stood next to Kiba as they glared at Naruto. Stupid blonde weirdo who only thinks for himself. Mari grumbled curses under her breath while Shizu was admitting to Kiba that she was wrong after all.

"Okay, this was uncalled for." Shizu admitted, her usual cheerful brown eyes sharpened into an annoyed glare at the Uzumaki. She now agreed with Kiba that the idiot had very _little_ chance of success.

"Alright," a familiar pinkette muttered, making Shizu glare at the girl with annoyance. Oh how Shizu loathed the girl, thinking that she could get Sasuke's sights, "Sakura here. Let's do this!" With a puff of smoke that covered her entire body, it vanished into the air and instead of her giant brow face, it was a mirror of Iruka.

"Good," Iruka praised, not bothering to watch Sakura cheer to herself as he marked some notes of approval or something along those lines.

Mari naturally scowled at the girl as she transformed back to her true form and cheered as if someone was actually going to give her a biscuit. _Damn it, I can't stand that annoying lunatic. She ruins our reputation of being females._

"Next! Uchiha Sasuke."

"Go Sasuke-kun!" Shizu yelled out happily as Mari rolled her eyes. The Nara gave a blank look towards her redhead companion. "What, it's not my fault that he's infatuated with me, I've got to be the supporting future wife." She explained, making Mari roll her eyes again. Mari had briefly forgotten that Shizu was a fan girl, probably worse than Sakura and Ino... put together.

The show off ignored Shizu and walked calmly forward to transform; reappearing in sight as another Iruka-sensei. He made a quiet grunt as he morphed back into his true, dark form and went back to his seat... possibly to brood a bit more.

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Oh goodie." Mari growled as her and the other classmates sent him death glares, Mari's appearing to be the most harmless with all the glares going off. Well ever since Mari had accepted Shizu to go near her, she had spent little time listening to Naruto ranting about his day like some gossip queen. Personally Mari assumed that Naruto would mind Mari leaving him, and she hasn't seen him act differently otherwise.

As if Shizu had read her mind, she gave a confused stare towards the direction of where Mari was glaring before discovering that the look was directed at Naruto. Her eyes hardened into an annoyed scowl, but she went back to observing Sasuke with hearts over her eyes again, muttering. _"Sasuke-kun… I love you…" _

"This is all your fault, Naruto," Shikamaru grumbled beside the blonde, his voice tone indicated that he was just as upset as Shizu was before she went back to daydreaming.

"We always have to suffer for your screw ups," Ino added coldly, looking more annoyed as they went on. Mari for once could agree with the overexcited blonde girl that usually complained about weight. They wouldn't be stuck like this if Naruto actually got his ass stuck on the chair to learn how to be a shinobi but no, he had to act like he was some special kid.

"Like I give a damn," Naruto retorted lowly, trudging forward. "Transform!" He yelled out as smoke covered him. Shizu got out of her daydream and widened her eyes as she waited for the devil to redeem himself. As the smoke cleared, Shizu shrieked out in horror to cover her own eyes, shortly before covering Mari's eyes as well.

"Don't taint your eyes with such nudity!" She expressed, while Mari shook her hand off her face. The redhead hated it whenever someone touched her face.

Standing in front of everyone, a young, naked blonde girl was appearing to be posing seductively with a body that could rival... someone's. Mari furrowed her brow in deep thought; she really didn't know who it could rival. Her eyes picked up on the horrified Ino before smirking to herself. Yep, the body could rival Ino's.

Iruka, being the typical pervert learnt how to fly backwards that day as he smashed into the wall behind him, being pushed forcibly by the blood from his nose. Naruto transformed back and snorted loudly at the response.

_Typical prankster._ Shizu growled, removing her hand away from her face. He was disturbing, Shizu could only wonder how different Naruto would've been if he had parents to watch him and raise him correctly.

"Gotch'a!" The blonde sneered, "That was my Sexy Jutsu!"

"YOU MORON! DON'T INVENT STUPID SKILLS! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" Iruka-sensei shouted as Mari covered her ears protectively. Not even Mari had made him scream like that – wait... there were a few times.

...

The next day passed quickly – sun was shining, birds were chattering, the hawks were sending daily messages, the Hokage was smoking and Shizu was snoring loudly under the blankets. Her hair tie was out, and the black hair was spread all over her pillow, with her arm attempting to reach one corner of the bed, the other arm was trying to reach for the opposite. With such a peaceful sleep, not even an explosion could wake Shizu up.

"Say morning to my fist of fury!"

**_WHACK_**!

"OW – Mari, why did you hit me?" Shizu whimpered with tears pricking the corner of her eyes as she clutched her head defensively. There was one thing that Shizu and Shikamaru had in common and it was their annoying desire to sleep in. At least Shikamaru knew how to wake up, whereas Shizu just ignored all distractions just to get a nap. Lazy little brat.

"Cause shaking and slapping you weren't working." Mari replied, pointing directly to Shizu's pink cheeks. Shizu blinked innocently and rubbed her cheeks awkwardly. "Now come on, we gotta go to the academy."

Once again, Shizu blinked innocently, "Why? I thought you didn't care about being late Mari." The redhead immediately scowled in annoyance and hit Shizu across the head again. "Ow!"

"Brat don't you remember? Today is the graduation test," Mari stated, her eyebrow rising once she saw Shizu get back into bed in a calm manner.

"Yeah, yeah... it's not like its important like the graduation exam." Shizu slurred completely ignoring Mari's words as she laid back down, attempting to go back to sleep. Standing above her, Mari silently counted in her head. Three, two, one and- "Wait, it's the graduation test today!" She squealed out in horror, before literally flying out of bed to put on her clothes in unbelievable speed. "Mari! We're gonna be late!" Shizu panicked, trying to brush her messy hair down before tying it up into the signature ponytail. "Come on Mari, we don't have time to pick our noses!"

Mari gave a confused look over to Shizu. "But I wasn't picking my-AH!" The redhead was dragged into the kitchen to see Yoshino making breakfast for Shikamaru and Shikaku.

"Hiyo Okaa-san! I'm just gonna go to the academy for my graduation test because, we're going to be late!" Shizu said in a quick way, even Mari couldn't understand on what she said.

"It's okay, just stay for breakfast," Yoshino insisted with a calm smile on her face, Shikamaru as always looked bored and Shikaku was staring at his plate of food, "Mari you too."

Mari appeared almost thrilled to join in, but Shizu pinched her arm, making her cringe and scowl at the brunette. "No okaa-san it's..." Shizu trailed off at the sight of her mother's annoyed look.

"I. Insist." Yoshino stated, the anger threatening to crack at her tone. Both of the girls nodded at sat by the table to eat a bowl of rice. It wasn't much, but it was enough for the girls to survive a full hour. After they had ate, they thanked Yoshino for the lovely breakfast. (Partly because she was a scary demon when she was angered by the fact no one complimented on her food)

**...**

"We will now start to final exam," Iruka-sensei declared to the class as they started to cheer in excitement.

"Finally!" Mari sighed out loudly, leaning back on her chair and staring at the ceiling, "And here I thought that I wasn't ever going to get out of this dump!" She could see it now, the peacefulness, the rest of her days as a shinobi because no one would be foolish enough to mess with her.

"What was that Mari?" Iruka questioned in front of her, his vein throbbed on his face while his eye twitched.

The redhead formed her face into a scowl when she realised that he could easily fail her, "I said, I saw a bump on Shizu's head."

Shizu from the back perked her head and tried feeling around for it. "Kiba, do I have a bump on my head?!" She wondered, feeling her pineapple shaped head to question her fellow neighbour if she really had a bump. Was that why Sasuke was ignoring her the day before?! Oh, it's on! For now on, Shizu would be giving Sasuke the silent treatment...

For one minute.

"Nara Shikazu."

The cheery Nara raised her head excitedly, realising that everyone who has attempted to go into the test so far has passed. She smiled widely at the thought of her forehead protector, where was hers going to sit? Around her neck? Nah, too boring and unusual, maybe she should put it around her head like she's witness some of the girls done so far. With a shrug, Shizu skipped down the stairs and put her hands together. Clone Jutsu? No problem.

With a sudden command, another two Shizu's appeared in front of the examiner and Iruka-sensei, smiling proudly as they jotted down some notes.

"Congratulations Shizu, you passed!" Iruka declared with a proud grin of the Nara twin.

Shizu squealed in delight and made her clones disappeared as she grabbed her forehead protector, smiling brightly as the metal had its own reflection of her face. She chuckled quietly. So much for needing a mirror for the missions.

"Sakamoto Mari."

Mari now stood up, dragging her feet towards the examiner and forming her own clones. Everyone else in the room shivered at the sight of two extra Death Starers in the room.

"Good work Mari, pass," Iruka congratulated with a smile as the other examiner wrote down on some record. Mari gave a look towards Choji, mouthing 'I told you so' to the nervous eater as she got her own forehead protector.

...

"Mari! Mari! Mari!" Shizu chanted, running straight towards Mari with excitement and tackling her into a python grip. The redhead cried out in fury as she tried pushing the smaller girl off her, "We passed! We passed! We passed!"

"Yes, I got that when I was able to hold my forehead protector, now would you let me go?" She growled, still trying to push Shizu off. Luckily, Shizu chose the wiser path and stood up to face the lonely boy by the swing set. Mari narrowed her eyes as she noticed his dull eyes, full of disappointment and failure.

_"There, you see him?"_

_"It's that boy. The only one who failed."_

_"Hm. Well it serves him right!"_

_"Just imagine what would happen if he became a shinobi. I mean he's the boy who –"_

_"Sh! We're not allowed to talk about that!"_

"What the heck?" Mari grumbled as she saw the parents speaking of Naruto. So what if he was different? The only reason why he didn't pass was because he couldn't even create one good clone. It was his own fault anyways.

"Poor Naruto," Shizu whispered beside Mari, her brown eyes staring shamefully at the blonde. Guilt from the day before made her realise how frustrating it would've been to be the only one that failed the test. "Should we go say something to him?"

In response, Mari snorted out rudely and turned the other way so she didn't feel a hint of pity. "No way, I may like the idiot better than the other guys but it was his own fault... don't drag other people's problems with yours Shizu, it will only lead to problems." The redhead replied, her green eyes finding Shizu's parents waiting for her and Shikamaru. Something painful twisted in Mari's chest at the sight, looking towards Shizu who excitedly greeting her parents and told them how easy her pass was.

It was only a moment until Shizu remembered Mari and turned back to face the redhead, "Mari... are you alright?"

Mari rose an eyebrow towards the ponytailed female, "Why do you ask that?" She questioned as she looked away, "I've got training to do so don't bother with me," Ignoring the chest pain, she shoved her hands in her pockets and headed out of the academy gates and eyed Naruto one last time. So this is how he felt, every day of his life because he was mocked. Her green eyes left him and focused on the sky above her, ignoring the sense of loneliness as she looked at the clouds and no longer felt alone.

She couldn't really go out to celebrate... she could get some ramen but she actually didn't feel like eating. Mari just decided to sit on the roof of one of the buildings near her home. If it had been any other day, Mari would have gone to hang out with Shizu, but she would probably hanging out with her family, and it wasn't Mari's right to join them. It wasn't the family that she was born into…

The forehead protector was still in her hand when she realised that she didn't put it on yet. With an annoyed sigh, Mari grabbed the band and tied it loosely around her neck, letting the metal gleam in the bright light.

"I wonder who my team is going to be," She mused to herself out loud; hopefully it wasn't Shizu and Sasuke together. At the thoughts, Mari winced mentally at the thought of the suffering that Shizu would bring. She wouldn't mind if she was on Choji's team, he was pretty strong – low self-esteem but strong. Shikamaru wouldn't be too bad either, he was apparently smarter than Shizu... though he would be too annoying for Mari's tastes. _I guess I can wait for tomorrow. _ She decided, jumping from the roof of the building and entering her apartment. It wasn't the most decent place to spend the nights in, comparing to the Nara estate but it was durable, besides this place was loaned to her and she accepted it with pride. The room was small, with a single bed with a spare futon, a mini kitchen and a bathroom as the walls were painted a boring white. Mari found this place rather clean, livable and quiet.

It was the way to spend one of the many lonely nights that she went though. She placed the bit of money she had on the counter and took off her forehead protector to place it on the futon beside her before she changed into her night clothes.

"Night world, night okaa-san." Mari muttered exhaustedly under her breath, laying on the futon for the first time in hours to get ready for the next day as a bright and young Genin.

**Please review, follow or favourite **

**29/08/2013 - *Oh yeah, Happy birthday Mari from three days ago xD **

**Mari: ... Whatever...**


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